The success of the small-press published game Mekton convinced Mike Pondsmith that he could make a business out of game design, thus he founded R. Talsorian Games in 1985, then put out a second edition of Mekton (1986) through the new company.[2]:207–208 The company's second game was Teenagers from Outer Space (1987).[2]:208Mekton II (1987) – the third edition of Mekton – revealed for the first time the company's full-fledged Interlock System.[2]:208 Pondsmith's next game, Cyberpunk 2013 (1988), was R. Talsorian's second Interlock design.[2]:208

R. Talsorian was one of the first RPG publishers to embrace desktop publishing, its first desktop published books were Mekton II in 1987, which looked much different from products that R. Tal would be putting out just a few years later (such as Cyberpunk 2020 (1989)). Cyberpunk became wildly popular (by RPG standards), and received most of the company's attention for much of the rest of its lifespan.

After an eight-year hiatus that began with its withdrawal from GenCon in 1998 over a conflict regarding floor space and dealer space, the company began a semi-regular publishing schedule again in 2006. Despite its "major" lines being on hiatus during that period, RTG still supported three licensed anime RPG lines (Bubblegum Crisis, Armored Trooper VOTOMS and Dragonball Z) through its ANimechaniX label and occasionally issued reprints for Mekton Z and Cyberpunk 2020.

On January 4, 2006, R. Talsorian Games founded their first demo team, The Chrome Berets. The Chrome Berets were founded and are supervised by David “Knighthawk” Simpson, creator of Knighthawk’s Cyberpunk Archive, a popular fan site for the game. The purpose of The Chrome Berets is to promote the company and products and playtest upcoming products.